Quote:
Originally Posted by Motorola
You need to deposit a negligble amount of your disposable income.
You need to practice solid bankroll management.
You need to play recreationally, while you work in a job that gurantees you an hourly.
You need to prove you can win over a significant sample size.
You need to ensure you enjoy playing , because even if you are able to beat the games, if you don't enjoy playing them there's no point.
You need to build enough of a bankroll moving up in your spare time, so that you start to earn an hourly comparative with your paid hourly job.
You need to continue doing this until your hourly is exceeding your paid job.
You need to save enough of your profits so you have 3-5 months money to live off, aside from your bankroll.
Then you quit your job and start playing full time.
You need to make good friends with very good players and talk poker most of the time you're not playing.
Basically this is what it takes to be a pro.
I'm not sure that I agree with the one that I bolded.
Yes, it's always best if you do something that you love. I love poker and I'm a full-time player. I was an army musician, and I loved that as well. On the other hand, a lot of people do jobs that they might not like, but they like the money.
I've had an amazing variety of jobs. There were a lot of rough times in the past. In the 1980s my city was tied with Flint for the highest unemployment rate in the entire country.
I spent a lot of my life scrambling for jobs, or when I didn't have one, taking college classes and doing other things to improve my situation. I worked a punch press that squirted oil in my face every time it slammed down. I was a day laborer. I worked in a mail room. I also had office jobs and made money as a musician. I did temp work 40 miles from where I live. Whatever paid the bills was fine with me until I could find something better.
I think that in these forums we put too many restrictions on poker players:
Don't play unless you love it.
Don't play unless you can make at least 50K.
If you can only make 50K you should get a "real job" where you can make more.
If you can make more than 50K, you're probably smart enough to get a job that pays at least that and has benefits.
Don't play strictly MTTs--too much variance.
Yes, it helps a lot if you like or love your job. But how much you make can be just as important.
Dan Harrington was one of the top backgammon players in the world, but there was a lot more money in poker. Some very strong chess players and video gamers have made the same decision. Jonathan Little and Vanessa Rousso both dropped out of college because they were making so much money playing poker nights and weekends that it made sense to make poker their job.
Sometimes you just go where the money is, and there is nothing wrong with that.